Putian wood carving, one of the four well-known     1     (category) of the art of Chinese wood carving, originated in the Tang and Song Dynasties.     2     (serve) as a national intangible cultural heritage (非物质文化遗产) item in China, it is a traditional folk carving technique of southeast China’s Fujian Province.

Zheng Chunhui, Lin Jianjun and Chen Yushu are three     3     (exception) representatives of wood carving masters. Zheng is a provincial-level inheritor (继承人) of the wood carving art,     4     not only excels in traditional wood carving technique,     5     expresses his love for his family and nation through his works. To promote the art, Zheng opened a unique wood carving gallery, which is the     6     (one) in Putian run by an individual and free to the public. The delicately made wood carving works by Lin     7     (shine) at a BRICS summit (峰会) several years ago, and meanwhile, the Chinese-style antique furniture pieces that are made by Chen     8     (show) at many international exhibitions over the past few years.

Putian city is home     9     over 2,600 wood carving companies, and the wood carving works     10     (create) there were sold to more than 20 countries and regions around the world last year.

The silk industry in Sichuan is one of the original points of Chinese silk culture. Sichuan brocade (蜀锦) originated from the Spring and Autumn period, and fully developed in the Han and Tang     1     (dynasty). It has a history of more than 2, 000 years and had a far-reaching influence     2     traditional Chinese silk production. Sichuan brocade features light shades     3     (integrate) in an elegant and care free style, which shows Han Chinese characteristics and local traditions.

Sichuan brocade is one of China’s four most famous branches of brocade, the others     4     (be) Yun brocade in Nanjing, Song brocade in Suzhou and Zhuang brocade in Guangxi. With its     5     (attract) designs and bright, clear colors that follow the style of Chinese-ink paintings, Sichuan brocade was put on the national intangible cultural heritage list in 2006.

Silk     6     (produce) in Sichuan Province since ancient times and Chengdu was the starting point of the southern Silk Road. Sichuan brocade is made with local silk and colored silk threads,     7     are the raw materials. Special embroidery (刺绣) skills are used     8     (turn) brocade into quilt covers, pillowcases, clothes and shoes.

    9     subjects of the Sichuan brocade are rich and varied. Some come from legends, myths, historical stories, and others come from landscape, figures, flowers, birds and animals,     10     (especial) the beasts that symbolize fortune and long life.

I remember that every year in lunar December in my hometown, Xinyang, each family begins to prepare bunches of bacon and sausage hanging from yard to yard     1     (embrace) the upcoming New Year. Walking in such a street view and sniffing the smell of pickled bacon(腊肉), I always have a sense of    2     (happy).

Xinyang, located on the boundary between the north and the south, is rich in rice, wheat and fertile land due to its unique     3     (geography) position and climate. Therefore, it cultivates the characteristics of Xinyang people who have a good appetite     4     delicacies. According to relevant records, the history of Xinyang’s pickled bacon dates back to the Ming Dynasty,     5     the locals learned to keep its special taste by preserving it in a special bean. People in Xinyang love their life so much that even during     6     (tough) times, they still inherited the soul of taste and made delicious pickled bacon. Actually, Xinyang’s pickled bacon is made in     7     seemingly simple way by drying the meat in the shade but it brings out the flavor of the food     8     (it) and stays with our memory for long.

You’ll never become fully conscious of how much you value it until you     9     (tear) apart from it. Such is Xinyang’s pickled bacon, one of my unforgettable memories of my hometown despite time     10    (tick) by.

7 . In China, tea has become an important part of everyday life for thousands of years. As the tea-processing methods and tea culture have evolved over the years, tea sets have also changed to meet the practical and cultural needs.

During the Tang Dynasty(618~907AD), tea leaves were traded across the country and Asia. For the convenience of transportation and storage, tea leaves were pressed into bricks. To prepare tea, drinkers had to cut them into small pieces and boil them in heat-resistant teapots.

By the Song Dynasty(960-1279), drinkers started to turn the hard bricks into powders (粉末) that could be whipped (搅打) in a cup with boiled water. This whipped tea is most commonly associated with Japanese tea ceremonies today.

By the 1500s, tea bricks gave way to the form of rolled leaves. This innovation led to the invention and use of teapots as we know them today. These teapots originally came from the Yi Xing region of China and were soon copied throughout the world. Then Japanese teapot-makers moved the handle from the side to the top of the teapots.

Tea finally reached Europe in the 1600s, along with the necessary tea sets made in Japan and China. As English teapot-makers began to adapt the tea sets to their country men’s tastes, they eventually added a handle to the tea bowl because of the English habit of drinking hot black tea, which was consumed at higher temperatures. The size of teacups also grew to accommodate milk and sugar in their tea.

By the early 1900s, innovations in tea drinking became an American affair. The most revolutionary one was the tea bag, which was accidentally commercialized by Thomas Sullivan. He had been sending customers tea wrapped in silk bags. Rather than take the leaves out of the bags, as Sullivan intended, the customers put the bags into their teapots instead. Not only did the tea bags push the teapot back to the sidelines of tea service, they were also too large for teacups and led to the modern practice of drinking tea from mugs.

The Art of Chinese Xinjiang Uyghur Muqam (新疆维吾尔木卡姆艺术) is a     1    (represent) name of various kinds of Muqam in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (自治区),     2     was declared one of the UNESCO Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2005.

Muqam,     3    (recognise) as the mother of Uyghur music, is not only     4     artistic creation with a long history, but also a record of     5    (communicate) between China and the regions to the west of it in history. It can be found in 19 countries and regions in Central, South, and West Asia, and North Africa, which is     6    (particular) due to Xinjiang’s central location along the Silk Road.

In Muqam ensembles (乐团), the lead instruments, called satar, are made from local materials and vary in form. The dancing skills involve unique steps, rhythms, and formations as well as     7    (figure) such as flower-picking-by-mouth, bowl-carrying-on-head, and imitation of animals in solo dances.

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, every possible means     8    (use) to preserve the Twelve Muqam by the Chinese government. About 20 study centres have been set up     9    (train) professional researchers on Muqam. Moreover, the government has introduced Muqam     10     the national artistic education system.